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CollectionBuilder

Software for Working with CollectionBuilder

No software needs to be installed to use CollectionBuilder. All edits can be completed via GitHub’s website making it easier to get started–you will just need a GitHub account. Many SHEETS and GH projects are completed that way. However, to work on your local desktop (instead of on GitHub interface), you will have to install software on your machine. All CollectionBuilder templates use the same development environment!

To get started editing code, managing your project, and building websites with CollectionBuilder on your computer you will need:

  • Git (version control system)
  • a text editor (for editing project code)
  • Ruby (programming language)
  • Jekyll (static web site generator)

Once you have this development environment set up, you will be able to preview your website right on your local computer, seeing the impact of your editing in real time!

These are all free, open-source, and cross platform software, so you should be able to get set up on any computer. They are not specific to CollectionBuilder–once these tools are installed, you will be able to pursue static web projects and learning of all kinds, be it CollectionBuilder or beyond.

Software Challenge

We know installing software can be the biggest hurdle to getting started with CollectionBuilder.

Our advice is to stick with it. Having your local “development environment” for a Jekyll-based project set up will be rewarding, allowing you to edit code and see how the website changes right on your laptop, opening up opportunities to understand and customize your project or create totally new ones.

These docs present pragmatic installation methods that have worked for us and others in our workshops, but every computer is a little different–don’t despair if you encounter problems, it happens to everyone.

We’ve tried to anticipate common issues to help with troubleshooting, but if these options fail, try Googling your problem using a very specific search (include the error message you are getting!). If Google doesn’t help, get in touch and we will try to help!

Please note, LLMs tend to end up with a lot of red herrings, so be careful following them down a rabbit hole installing lots of random things! It is usually better to uninstall old packages, clean up, and start fresh before getting into other debugging.

Alternatively, if you can not get the software installed or want to teach the full development environment without the install steps, services such as GitHub Codespaces can provide a browser-based code editor connected to a container running in the cloud. Learn more about setting up Codespaces for CB.

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